Category: Dispatch from Rio

Felipe Araujo is a freelance news journalist based in London. He spent five years at CNN International and covered the 2014 World Cup in Brazil for Germany’s public broadcaster ZDF. He writes about race and minority issues, sports and culture. He is reporting from Rio on the 2016 Olympics.
Twitter: @felipethejourno

Dispatch from Rio by Felipe Araujo The day after the Opening Ceremony of the Rio Olympics, I found myself in northern Rio’s Madureira Park – a place far away from the bright lights of the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. On weekends, it’s here that Cariocas from the surrounding favelas congregate to spend quality… Read More

by Felipe Araujo If there was ever a microcosm for the unfair struggle between everyday citizens and huge corporate interests (including a repressive state), then Rio de Janeiro’s Vila Autódromo neighbourhood might just be it. The impoverished community, which has been fighting eviction for years, sits right alongside the Olympic Park. People here have been… Read More

by Felipe Araujo “The Olympics are for first world countries and Brazil is still a third world nation.” These were the words of Raff Giglio, a boxing instructor and community leader in Vidigal, a favela that majestically sits among two hills overlooking Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema beach. Giglio knows Vidigal from top to bottom. He… Read More